Uber quarterly sales up 61%

Uber Technologies Inc. had a painful 2017, but the business managed to grow.

Adjusted net revenue last quarter increased 61 percent to $2.22 billion from the same period in 2016. Meanwhile, the total value of fares grew to $11 billion that quarter. It was the first full quarter under Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over the troubled business in September.

Despite a turbulent year for the ride-hailing company, sales were $7.5 billion. But the company also posted a substantial loss of $4.5 billion. There are few historical precedents for the scale of its loss.

Uber isn’t publicly traded but has chosen to release select financial information to investors and the public in recent quarters. Last month, SoftBank Group Corp. led a $9.3 billion investment deal to make itself largest shareholder in the San Francisco-based company. The Japanese firm is betting that more people will choose to book rides through an app instead of driving themselves and that the business will find a way to make up for losses today.

The latest financial report shows the company continues to increase its revenue while making progress on cutting its loss. Uber’s loss is based on generally accepted accounting principles, which includes writedowns, as well as the company’s enormous legal expenses, such as the cost of defending against a trade secrets lawsuit from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo. Uber agreed to give Waymo stock valued at $245 million to settle the suit last week.

Uber prefers to use a different number to refer to its loss: $2.2 billion. The figure leaves out some legal costs and stock-based compensation, as well as taxes, interest and other expenses. Uber concluded the year with about $6 billion in cash, 13 percent less than the year before.

Khosrowshahi spoke with investors on a conference call Tuesday afternoon. The company shared the numbers with technology news site the Information after the call and confirmed them to Bloomberg. Khosrowshahi said on the investor call that UberEats had reached a $4 billion gross revenue run-rate in the fourth quarter, which means food delivery will represent about 10 percent of Uber’s business.

The CEO is scheduled to speak Wednesday at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. technology conference in San Francisco, as is Bill Gurley, a former board member who helped lead the ouster of Khosrowshahi’s predecessor, Travis Kalanick.

Uber hasn’t made it easy to compare last year’s financials to years past. The company declined to disclose complete data for 2016 and over time has changed how it accounts for revenue. Uber lost billions in China before selling its business there in 2016 in exchange for a 17.5 percent stake in homegrown rival Didi Chuxing.